Reviews: This Is Football 2002. Format: PS2. Publisher: SCEE. Price: £39.99

SONY has fired the first shot in this year's console war by dropping the price of a PlayStation 2 down to a palatable £199. But kicking hardware is nothing without software to match, so the company is speeding up its pre-Christmas release schedule to ensure there's plenty of tempting new games on the shelves too.

One of the most important new titles as far as UK gamers are concerned has to be This Is Football 2002. To be honest, I wasn't expecting great things from Sony's own footie title. Its prequels on the PS One were underwhelming, to say the least. The first one made it virtually impossible to score, the second looked like a dog's dinner.

So it came as a pleasant surprise to find the PS2 version an altogether different ball game. FIFA 2001 has enjoyed a pretty clear run on the PS2 so far. International Superstar Soccer (or ISS as it is fondly known) may have the playability but it doesn't have the looks. Gamers with the PS One have stuck with the original ISS Pro Evolution.

At least This Is Football 2002 looks like a true next generation title. The level of detail is fantastic. Thanks to a FIFPro licence, every player is instantly identifiable from the off. This Is... stokes up the atmosphere by having the teams trot onto the pitch then go through their warming up exercises as the crowd roars its approval. Great stuff, that's worthy of FIFA 2001.

But it doesn't end there.

In virtually every previous football title the crowd has been nothing more than multi-coloured wallpaper. In some cases, wallpaper would have looked better. Not so here. Watch closely and you'll see them roaring with delight when you score or holding their heads in shame when you miss an open goal. The interaction carries over onto the audio soundtrack. Chanting goes up when your team is attacking. Concede a crucial goal at home and all you can hear are the opposition fans with their taunts.

Other nice touches are the way players surround the ref when a decision goes the other way, the way the pitch cuts up in bad weather and the fact your strikers acknowledge a well-taken cross or corner kick (even if they completely failed to latch onto the end of it).

To play it's a mix of the best bits from both FIFA and ISS. I found it best to play a passing game, keeping the ball pinging between my players and waiting for an opening.

There is a wide range of skills available to individual players but they lack the subtle touch of an ISS title. Pleasingly, the artificial intelligence adapts to your game, neatly avoiding the "sweet spot" problems FIFA aficionados will be familiar with.

Tackling is rather more difficult. The slide tackle is the easiest to pull off but there's a 50-50 chance you'll punt the ball to another member of the opposing team or, even worse, give away a free kick.

Sony has certainly pulled out all the stops on this one. You can play every major tournament including the World Cup as well as the usual premiership scrap. Fantasy matches are also there for the making, pitting successful teams of yesteryear against the best we have to offer in 2001.

Of course, This Is Football 2002 is just the opening shot. A new FIFA will be with us shortly and then there's a true next generation ISS waiting in the wings. Until the big two arrive, this title makes a more than acceptable alternative. Rather like Bolton this year, little was expected of This Is Football 2002 before the season started, but it has managed to surprise us all. Well done Sony.

Dark Cloud. Format: PS2. Publisher: SCEE. Price: £39.99

THE other big title from Sony this weekend couldn't be more different. Dark Cloud is a role-playing game in the tradition of Final Fantasy.

Games like this are massively popular in the Far East where gamers are prepared to invest many hours to explore every aspect of a computer-generated universe. Over here, they are well regarded by the hardcore but tend to be shunned by the "post pub" brigade who find them too repetitive and cerebral.

Dark Cloud isn't going to change things. It's deserving of praise for creating such a large game world, but demands a massive input if you are to truly enjoy everything it has to offer. The ploy is standard fantasy stuff about a world ravaged by an evil genie. It's your job as the main character, Toan (why do RPG leads have such naff names?) to find the remaining inhabitants and restore peace to the world.

There's an unusual strategy element to the game play - you have to rebuild towns and villages according to the needs of those you rescue - and your inventory must be carefully maintained if a weapon isn't to break in the middle of a crucial duel.

The day-into-night motif has been used before - in the granddaddy of the RPG game, The Legend of Zelda, - but it still serves to add an extra element of unease when you are exploring a darkened building.

Fans of the RPG genre will enjoy Dark Cloud immensely. Newbies will find the battles repetitive and the graphics functional rather than fabulous. Anyone willing to invest the time will undoubtedly find Dark Cloud a rewarding experience.

If you measure value for money in terms of hours needed to play through a game, then Dark Cloud is a bargain.

CHEAT OF THE WEEK

ATV Offroad on the PS2 is a fun game. To unlock every vehicle without playing all the way through, enter pro career mode and type: Chaching.

GIZMO OF THE WEEK

A comic isn't exactly a gizmo but trade paperback collections are becoming big business nowadays. Renamed "graphic novels" so adults can buy them without fear of ridicule, some of the best are truly works of art.

Games players may have enjoyed Alien Vs Predator a few years back but comic book writers have already moved on. Aliens Vs Predator Vs The Terminator is surely the ultimate grudge.

Skynet, the super computer that created The Terminator, may have been vanquished in the movies but here it's back, only this time it's nurturing an army of aliens. Though John Connor is dead, Lt Ellen Ripley certainly isn't and she has to organise the fight back.

Readers who enjoy traditional comic heroes may find Green Lantern Vs Aliens more to their taste. A DC/Dark Horse cross over, the Lantern has a nice line in wit as Kyle Rayner comes up against a race of perfect killers.

Modern comic heroes lack the perfect persona of Superman, et al. Often they have a dark side and sometimes it's difficult to tell if they are friend or foe. Mindhunter pits four of these New Age characters in one massive war. Oh, and the aliens turn up for the party, too.

All three are published by Titan Books priced from £9.99.

Published: Saturday, October 6th, 2001